2008 in Review

Last year I purposed to start taking public transportation to work. Schedules being what they were, to make it work I would have to leave the house at about 6:30 in the morning. Normally I was leaving around 9:00. Or 10:00. (Sometimes as late as 11:00). I am not a morning person.

My wife was pretty surprised though when I started getting up early to get to the train on time. I've been taking the train for the last year now. And it's been great.

I have a 20-30min train ride plus a 10 minute bus ride into work now, which I've used to read, write, or just unwind. This turns out to be a lot of time. While I used to think of myself as "quite a reader", the reality is I'd buy lots of books, and look at them, but not necessarily read them. I'd probably read parts of them. But throughout the year maybe only read half a dozen books all the way through, which is something that embaresses me.

This past year, thanks to the train, I read 27 books, and that feels really good. I even made a new rule for myself: I must read one book at a time. "This is practical," I told myself, "you only have room for a single book while on the train". (Normally, I'd be "reading" anywhere from 4-12 books at a time.)

Throughout the year, this rule ended up branching out into other areas of my life. I had many, many projects in various states of completion, and I started to make some cuts. Normally I "put projects on hold" indefinitely, but this time I called them quits. Threw things out. "Never going to do that." I told myself. Some would call that sad, but the sadder thing is being so bogged down with projects I don't actually care about that I never end up working on what my heart really enjoys. Net result of the purging: Less stress, less distractions, less to think about, more space, more time.

What did I do this year then? I learned to play Tennis. I learned to swim. I went to Comic-Con where I rediscovered my creative spark. I saw Neil Gaiman read a chapter out of his new book. I wrote a good chunk of my first Novel. I went to Seattle. I wrote a lot of poetry, and even got some recognition for it.

When I look back on it all, thinking about the goals I set last year, and the goals I'm looking to set this coming year, it came to my attention that my choice to take the train really enabled the completion of a lot of my other goals. I did most of my writing on the train, and nearly all my reading. As I was thinking about this I came across this post which made this little comment about New Years Resolutions: "Don’t make resolutions, create a new habit. It lasts longer".

That's when I realized taking the train was never a "goal" like that of writing a novel. It was a change of behavior (a goal in and of itself to be sure). It was a habit. It was a habit that really enabled a lot of other desirable behaviors to flourish. I began to think about my goals for 2009 in this way--what change of behavior would most empower me?

For now I settled on this, the idea that first thing in the morning (or close to) I'd sit down and ask myself what I need to get done, then writing those things down. This happens automatically for my wife, she couldn't turn it off if she tried. But I'm the opposite. I can go days and weeks without ever checking in with myself and realize I'm supposed to actually be doing something besides starting new projects. Hopefully this will help keep me connected to my intentions.